Books by Daniel Kevles
“It’s a history book—by a physicist who shifted to doing history. It goes from the early 19th century up to the present (when it was published). It covers how the world wars, especially World War One, affected scientific research and looks at why the centre, especially of experimental physics, shifted to the United States. The book traces all the different threads—social, political, and, of course, scientific—of how physics went from being an outré subject in the 19th century, with only a few fairly eccentric people doing it, to people like James Maxwell, who were really getting into the nuts and bolts of things. Then, in the 20th century, it started getting a lot of support from people like Rockefeller, who were funding research…It’s very engagingly written, it’s very entertaining. You would think it would be a fairly dry book, it could even be an academic book, but it’s not at all, it’s very readable. I learned a lot” Read more...
The best books on The History of Physics
Mark Wolverton, Science Writer
“What’s interesting and important about Kevles’s book is that it takes eugenics seriously as a science.” Read more...
Philippa Levine, Historian
Interviews where books by Daniel Kevles were recommended
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1
In the Name of Eugenics: Genetics and the Uses of Human Heredity
by Daniel Kevles -
2
The Nazi Connection: Eugenics, American Racism, and German National Socialism
by Stefan Kuhl -
3
Eugenic Nation: Faults and Frontiers of Better Breeding in Modern America
by Alexandra Minna Stern -
4
The Hour of Eugenics: Race, Gender, and Nation in Latin America
by Nancy Leys Stepan -
5
Heredity and Hope: The Case for Genetic Screening
by Ruth Schwartz Cowan
The best books on Eugenics, recommended by Philippa Levine
The best books on Eugenics, recommended by Philippa Levine
The term ‘eugenics’ elicits queasiness amongst those who associate it with the Nazis. But Winston Churchill, George Bernard Shaw and Margaret Sanger were among its many proponents in the interwar period. Why? Philippa Levine, professor of history at the University of Texas, explains.
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1
The Day We Found the Universe
by Marcia Bartusiak -
2
The Physicists: The History of a Scientific Community in Modern America
by Daniel Kevles -
3
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
by Richard Rhodes -
4
How the Hippies Saved Physics: Science, Counterculture, and the Quantum Revival
by David Kaiser -
5
The Quantum Labyrinth: How Richard Feynman and John Wheeler Revolutionized Time and Reality
by Paul Halpern
The best books on The History of Physics, recommended by Mark Wolverton
The best books on The History of Physics, recommended by Mark Wolverton
In the 20th century, the United States emerged as a leading centre of experimental physics, with a lot more going on than just the Manhattan project and the use of atomic energy in warfare. Science writer Mark Wolverton, author of Splinters of Infinity, recommends some of his favourite books about the history of physics, with a focus on the 20th century and the United States. (For books about classical physics, browse all our physics book recommendations).
